Personal Narrative: Kevin Smith's Clerks

I’m fourteen. It’s a late Friday night and as I lay in bed I grow an urge to defy my bedtime and watch TV. As I flip through TV stations I land on a black and white film. This film is peculiar to me. It stars two wise cracking teenagers as they struggle to survive a day at work in a convenience store. The language is pervasive at times and the acting is way below the standard we usually come to expect from movies, but despite all this I watch it in full. Somehow its low production value captivates me. Before my midnight viewing of this film it had always been a belief of mine that film was reserved to those with big budgets and tremendous special effects. The film is Kevin Smith’s “Clerks”. The film for me had all the humor of a big budget

Fictional narratives that are designed to evoke a feeling of melancholy or thrill in audiences are those that I believe to most embody my directing style. Stories that explore real world issues and are grounded in contemporary society are my preference. More specifically I strive to tell stories that mesh elements of reality with surreal and unreal elements. My want and my desire is to direct narratives that are as captivating story wise as they are visually. I hope to one day use my artistic license as a director to mold fictional worlds in the world of film and television that will amaze and engross

Since 2012 I have been involved in various music videos, live event tapings, short films, and video art installations. My roles for these projects have varied from production assistant to director to editor to cinematographer. Recently, I have worked alongside SDSU professor and filmmaker Neil Kendricks on his latest short film “Memory Lines”. On his short I served as his first camera assistant. Last fall semester I took part in numerous San Diego State student film projects. In these projects I participated as a production assistant and as a result I had the great opportunity to experience a variety of crew roles. My tasks included operating the sound mixer, filling out camera reports, and completing sound reports. Most notably I worked on a SDSU short film entitled “From Francis to Frank”, during its production I moved up from being a production assistant into the role of second camera assistant. In this position I was trusted with the loading and unloading of film magazines, the changing of camera lenses, and the slating of each scene. This semester I have continued to work on SDSU projects. Most recently, I served as the second camera assistant on a “The Big Lebowski” scene recreation done by the film program’s graduate students. All in all it has been my pleasure to observe the conduct and work ethic of the SDSU film students, and it is my hope to continue this experience for